The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-10-06
THE DIVINE PLUMB LINE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage's Sermon at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle.

COnfidence-Brain Workers Need as Much
Sympathy as Laborers.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 25.-After the great
congregation had sung the long meter
doxology in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning, DIR. Talmage expounded the sixth
chapter of the Second Epistle to tine Cor
inthians, setting forth the importance of
separation from bad fellowship, and saying
that man is no better than The company
he keeps. Professor Henry Eyre Brown
played an organ solo, onata No. l in ID
minor by Guillmant. The subject of the
sermon was "a traight Up and Down Re-
ligion, and the text was Amos vii, s, And
the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? ard said, plumb line" DR.. Tai
mage said:
The solid masouary of the world has to
me fascination. Walk about some of the
triumphal arches and the cathedrals, 400
or 60O. years old, and see them stand as
erect as when they were builded, walls of
great height for centuries, not bending
quarter of an inch this way or that So
greatly honored we're the masons who
builded these walls that they were free
from taxation and called free" masons.
The trowel gets most of the credit for these
buildings, and its clear ringing on stone
anu DTlth uub bOuLLu6u uCIOS5 Iub ages. bub
there is another implement of Just as much
importance as the trowel, and my test re-
cognizesit. Bricklayers, and stone- masons,
and carpenters, in the building of walls,
use an instrument made OF a cord, at the
end of which a lump of lead is fastened.
They drop it over the side of the wall,
and as the plummet naturally seeks the
center of gravity in the earth, the workman
discovers where the wall recedes, and
where it bulges out, and Just what is the
perpendicular. Our text represents God
as standing ON the wall of character, which
the Israelites had built, and in that way
measuring it. "And the Lord said unto
me, Amos, what seest thou? and said, A
plumb line"
What the world wants is a straight up
and down religion. Much of the so-called
piety of the day bends this way and that,
to suit the times. 1t is horizontal with o
low state Of sentiment and morals. We
have all been building a wall of character,
and it is glaringly imperfect and needs re-
construction. How shall it be brought into
the perpendicular? Only by the divine
measurement. "And the Lord said unto
me, Amos, what seest thou? and said, A
plumb line."
The whole tendency of the times is to
make us act by the standard of what others
do. If they play cards, we play cards.
If they dance. we dance. If
they read certain styles of books, we read
them. We throw over the wall of our
character the tangled plumb line OF other
lives and reject the infallible test which
Amos saw, The question for me should
not be what you think is right, but what
God thinks is right. This perpetual refer
ence to the behavior of others, rs though
it decided anything but human fallibllity,
is mistake as wide as the world. There
are 10000 plumb lines in use, but only one
is true and exact, and that is the line of
Gods eternal right There is o mighty
attempt being made to reconstruct and
fix up the Ten Commandments. To many
they seem tco rigid. The tower of Pisa
leans over about thirteen feet from the
perpendicular, and people go thousands of
miles TO see its graceful inclination, and
by extra braces and various architectural
contrivauces it is kept leaning from century
to century. Why not have the ten granite
blocks of Sinai set O little aslant? Why
not have the pillar of truth leaning tower?
Why is not an ellipse as good as a square?
Why is not an oblique as good as a straight
up and down? My friends, we must have
o standard; shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be thrown
over all merchandise. Thousands of years
ago Solomon discovered the tendency Of
buyers to depreciate goods. He saw
man beating down an article lower and
lower and SAYING it was not worth the
price asked, and when he had purchased
at the lowest poin; he told everybody Whist
sharp bargain he had struck, and how he
had outwitted the merchant. Proverbs Xxx.
II: at is naught, it is naught, saith the
buyer, but when he is gone his way, then
he boasteth." So utterly askew is society
in this matter that you seldom find seller
asking the price that he expects to get.
He puts on ii higher value than he pro-
poses to receive, knowing that he will have
to drop. II he wants fifty, he asks seventy
five. And ii he wants 1000 he asks 2,50O.
at is naught," saith the buyer. "The
fabric Is de ec,ige; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere a better article
at Il smaller price; it is out of fashion; it is
damaged; it will fade; it will not wear
WE'LL" After a while the merchant, from
overpersuasion or from desire to dispose Of
that particular stock of goods, says: "Well,
take it at your own price," and the pur-
chaser goes home with light step and calls
into his private Office his confidential
friends, and chuckles while he tells how
that for half price he got the goods. In
other words he lies and was proud of it.
Nothing would make times as good, and
the earning of livelihood so easy, as the
universal adoption of the law of right.
Suspicion strikes through all bargain max
ing. Men who sell know not whether
they will ever get the money. Purchasers
know not whether the goods shipped will
be according 10 the sample, and what, with
the large number of clerks who are making
false entries and then absconding to
Canada, and the explosion of firms that
fail for millions of dollars, honest men are
at their wits end to make o living. He
who stands up amid all the pressure and
does right is accomplishing something
toward the establishment of high COM
mercial prosperity. have deep sympathy
for the laboring classes who toll with hand
and foot. But We must not forget the
business men who, without any complaint |
or hammered professions through the
street, are enduring a stress of circum-
stances terrific. The fortunate people of |
to-day are those who are receiving daily |
wages or regular salaries. And the men
most to be pitied are those who conduct a |
business while prices are falling, and yet |
try to pay their clerks and employees, and |
are in such fearful straits that they would |
quit business tomorrow if it were not for |
the wreck and ruin Of others. When peo-
pie tell me at what a ruinously low price |
they purchased an article it gives me more
dismay than satisfaction. I know it means |
the bankruptcy and defalcation Of men in |
many departments. The men who toll |
with the brain need full as much sympathy |
as those who toll with their hands. All |
business life is struck through with |
suspicion, and panics are only the result Of |
want of confidence.
The pressure to do wrong is all the
stronger from the fact that in our day the
large business houses are swallowing up /
the nrn nllnr the Whalaa dining ON hlnafiah L